Page 71 of After The Storm

Roman closed his eyes and listened to hear what Kate would say, but she stayed quiet, for once. The governor then asked Roman the same thing and made the same promise to him, but he simply shook his head. If he was going to die, he sure as hell wasn’t going to do it on some poor soul’s back.

Their refusal to tell him what he wanted to know infuriated him, and he stormed away to go find Melvin. Roman knew this was their last chance to get free.

He whispered to Kate, “Don’t worry. I won’t let them kill you.”

“You aren’t going to be able to stop them. They’re going to kill both of us, Roman,” she sobbed.

He continued to fumble around with the ropes tying his wrists until they were as loose as he could get them. “Trust me. I’m going to get us out of this.”

Curling up into a ball, he pulled his hands down behind his legs and around his feet. Now he just needed to find something to cut the ropes so he could be free. Quickly scanning the area around him, he saw a screw coming out of a pole a few feet away. Inching over on his stomach, he frantically rubbed the ropes over the screw as he watched for that big guy to return. He tore through the rope enough to tug his hands free and then freed his ankles.

“How? Roman, tell me. Where did you go?”

Hurrying back to where he’d sat on the floor, he whispered to Kate, “I won’t let them kill us. I just need you to trust me.”

Two men came walking toward them and announced that they were going to be moved. Taking what he saw as the only chance to get free, Roman jumped up, picked up a nearby chair and hit the one of them closer to him with it, knocking him out. He grabbed the man’s gun, but Melvin pointed his gun at Kate.

Roman took aim and shot him, but before he went down, he got off one shot. Roman watched as Kate contracted on the floor in the lifeless heap. Rushing over to her, he saw the gunshot wound to her shoulder. She needed help right now. Untying her wrists and ankles, he kissed her as his mind raced with how he’d save her. He needed to get her out of that place. He grabbed one of the men’s phones from his pocket and then lifted her into his arms to carry her out of the hangar.

Calling the Project Artemis compound, he said quickly into the phone, “I need assistance. The client is down. Kate has been shot.”

Nick asked, “Where?”

Roman looked around and saw a sign that said Lafayette. “We’re at a hangar, but I don’t think we’re still in New Orleans. I see a sign with the word Lafayette. Find out if there’s a local airport near there. It’s definitely small, Nick.”

Nick told him, “Okay, we’ll find you. We’ll have someone there in less than thirty minutes. Hang tight. We’re coming.”

Roman set her down on the ground and saw blood coming from her shoulder. Bending over, he kissed her lips and whispered against them, “Stay with me, Kate. You’re going to be okay. I’m right here with you.”

She looked up at him and gave him a tiny smile. “I’m sorry, Roman. You were right. I’m sorry.”

He kissed her again and pulled her to him. “No apologies needed. We’re going to be fine. Don’t leave me, Kate. I love you. I can’t let you leave me.”

Her eyes began to close as she mumbled, “Always telling me what to do. I think I’ve grown to love that.”

She stopped talking and her head dropped onto his chest. Panic rushed through him as the reality that Nick might not get someone there in time to save her settled into his head. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t.

“Kate! Don’t leave me, Kate!”

He watched for her to react, but her eyes remained closed. He couldn’t lose her now. Not now that he finally found her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kate slowly openedher eyes, still groggy from sleeping and unsure if she’d just had the most vivid nightmare ever. Had she been beaten? Slowly, she came alive again, and the details began to get hazy.

Looking around the room, she instantly knew she didn’t recognize it. Her bedroom in her apartment had blue walls. She knew this because she remembered how much time she’d taken picking out that pale blue color at the home improvement store. She painted those walls herself on a long Fourth of July holiday weekend after her last breakup made her decide to completely change the room to rid herself of every last remnant of that boyfriend.

The walls surrounding her now were beige. No, this was definitely not her bedroom at home. Bits and pieces of other rooms she thought she knew flitted through her mind. A dive motel room with a hideous green and brown bedspread. When had she been there? A much nicer hotel room and a bed she didn’t fear sleeping in. A million dollar home out by the lake.

Scenes began forming in her head, like parts of a story she should know. Then the heartbreaking truth came rushing forward into her consciousness. Jonas was dead. Samuel Darnell, his client he refused to tell her about, was also dead. How? Who had done that?

She didn’t have the answers, but she needed to find them.

A twinge in her shoulder made her wince, but she knew her body always ached when she spent too long in bed and she had no idea how long she’d been asleep in this strange place. She needed to get up and figure out where the hell she was. Sitting up, she felt the twinge instantly grow to a red-hot shot of pain that stabbed through her shoulder and took her breath away.

“Ohhhh,” she groaned as she eased back down onto the bed.

“Kate? Are you awake?” a familiar voice asked from beside her.

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